St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-01-30
THE TOBOGGAN A TEACHER.
Advantages Which it Gives the Inquiring
Feminine Mind.
SHADES in Anatomy. Hitherto I'm
known, Pursued With Ease.
!" Sster1ous Growth of Masculine
Extremit1es in Winter Garb.

PROBABLY the men who first erected tobog-
gan slides in st. Paul did not realize what
d poom they were giving woman's rights.
ANY movement that tends to equallze the
eaucatlonal privileges of the sexes is a step
toward securing for fond parents the rea-
sonaDle belief that Susie, as well as Willie,
VIII one day be president of the United
States, cousin to the Goddess of Liberty.
ana legal guardian of the American eagle.
Inc variety stage has long afforded
men exceptional advantages for che study
OF Observation-Disclosures which were denied
down todden women. But tobOgganing
at last furnishes no men the opportunity for
pursuing the study free from annoyances
10 winch even men are subject. \ reputa-
bic man, indulging his desire for knowledge
and seeking to determine whether the tibla
and femur in pink tights are placed similar
10 the tlbia and femur in blue tights, is
Obliged to practice certain amount of
fraud. lie tells his wife that he is going
10 political meeting, and on the way
down, If there is anyone in the car whom
he knows, he piously turns his
eyes from the variety and rides on
couple of blocks farther, gets out in
| front OF the Y. NJ. G. 4. rooms, crawls
back to his original destination, greets the
ticket seller with all apologize smile, and
sinks into his seat wearing hypocritical,
| l-really didn't want to come but-didn't-
KNOW What-elSe-t to- dO-yOu-k know expression.
| Women are spared all this pain OF decep-
ton by the superior facilities of the
toboggan method. They may sit at the
front window. or walk down the street in
| broad daylight, the eyes of the world upon
them, and unreproved, unreproached,
gaze at the leg(gins) of the passing male
tobogganer. There is. however. as has
been said, no royal road to knowledge. and
women find that in their anatomical studies
the road to certain results is badly OBJ
structed-by cotton or sawdust. Far be it
from me to attempt to state positively
which it IS, 1t has long been perpleXing
problem. what Is soul and what is body in
man. The female anatomical student has
the difficulties Of the problem increased by
the question, How much is body and how
much something else. That there is some
thing else is plain to every OBJ
serving woman. The legs of Freddy,
Charley and Harry that in sum.
mer and tight pantaloOns are feminine gen.
der, denoting frailty, exposed to view in
leggins and blanket knee breeches show
proportions at once surprising and suspi-
cious 1t has been scientifically demon
strated by St. Paul girl that it is Infinitely
easier to penetrate the skull of the average
male tobogganer and find something inside
than it is to discover anything having feel
ing in his eXtremitieS. Of course, cold has
benumbng tendency, and it is barely possible
that there is something about bone which is
peculiarly affected by winters weather and
tObOgganrg. Girls minds will have ample
opportunity for exercise during the winter
w thny bQoDpan far mi Iiar wit fba
nature Of bone as to know why cold. which
usually contracts, causes it to expand, they
will be warranted in demanding entran ce to
the next stage nearer perfect equality of
the seXes-the ring. 1t has always seemed
to me that when the world once knows !
Miss John l.. Sullivan, only day will pass
before the presidential chair is enlarged to |
accommodate founceS aud crinoline. To- |
bogganing is not without its advantages |
to men-it practices women in the art of |
holding their tongue. 1t furnishes the one
occasion where woman will not talk. She |
can and does talk with her mouth full of |
harpins, and if shaving were regular !
thing with her, be sure she would manage |
to talk under that. But in tobogganng she |
is so afraid Of being dropped by the way |
that she feels she must hold on to some
thing. anything, eyerything-even her
hurry going down that they do not stop
to think, and so fail to realize
what it is that makes the sport such an
awfully pleasant one. There is really no
end to the lessons tobogganing teaches
women. A girl came limping into my room
after her first nights experience, and told
me she was ready to be married. Just one
trip from the top of the hill to the bottom
had graduated her. she said. in training
school for wives and mothers. After girl
has slid off from a toboggan and rolled over
and over down 2, 900 feet Of iced snow.
landing with bang against high board
fence, she is fully awakened to a sense of
the reality of life when she picks
herself up bruised. bleeding and disiointed.
and is obliged to join the spectators in
laughing, and considering the whole thing
a huge joke. she learns clearly for the first
time in her existence that she is a woman.
In later years, as she enjoys the dogs ex-
perience of being kicked and is denied the
dogs privilege of bowling. she will find
that the habits of self-control acquired in
will endear her to the heart of
her master. A man can endure a whining
cur-he can kill it. but a whining woman
the law protects hers unbearable.
FLORA MCD.